Install & Configure pwsafe Password manager in openSUSE

Install & Configure pwsafe Password manager in openSUSE

pwsafe is a free opensource password manager which manages the passwords in an encrypted password database. pwsafe is a command line software but can interact with X11 selection & clipboard. pwsafe is compatible with CounterPane’s PasswordSafe Win32 program versions 2.x and 1.x. It’s unfortunate that there hasn’t been much of a development to this great tool since September 2005 but whats on hand is good enough to serve the purpose.

Install pwsafe

To install pwsafe on your openSUSE, click on one of the following 1-click installs based on your openSUSE versions.

openSUSE 11.1

openSUSE 11.0

openSUSE 10.3

This should download the YMP file and open YaST package manager. Click Next on the additional repositories window and Next on the window showing pwsafe software selection and finally next on the Installation proposal window. This should start the installation with adding the repositories, install the pwsafe package and the required dependencies. Click Finish when the installation successfully completes.

This should install pwsafe at /usr/bin/pwsafe

sai@opensuse11:~> which pwsafe
/usr/bin/pwsafe

Get Started

To get started, you need to create a Password Database. The default Password database is pwsafe.dat installed under your home directory as a hidden file (.pwsafe.dat). The backup Password Database file is .pwsafe.dat~

To show the username, password or both, use the -u & -p options. By default, the output is directed to the clipboard. However, you can choose the send it to an output file or display onscreen.

To copy username to clipboard

sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -u test
Going to copy login to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY

To copy Password to clipboard

sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -u -p test
Going to copy login and password to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY
You are ready to paste the password for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD

To copy both username and password to clipboard

sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -up test
Going to copy login and password to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY
You are ready to paste the password for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD